October 03, 2025
This Week in CX: AI Agents Take the Lead
Happy Friday! ‘This week in CX’ brings you the latest roundup of industry news.
This week, we explored how Brits are turning to ChatGPT for their next pint spot, best practices for employee engagement surveys, and the gap between brand trust and consumer expectations.
We are also discussing updates from Pandora, Spotify, and Bloomberg.
Key news
- Pandora, the world’s biggest jewellery maker, has appointed chief marketing officer Berta de Pablos-Barbier as its new CEO, the company announced. She will take over in March 2026, following Alexander Lacik’s retirement after nearly seven years. It is the first time the Copenhagen-based company will have a woman at the helm. De Pablos-Barbier, who started as CMO in November 2024, is currently the firm’s only woman in Pandora’s eight-person executive leadership team, according to Bloomberg. De Pablos-Barbier said she would stick to Pandora’s “accessible luxury” strategy and push the company beyond bracelets to a broader jewellery offering.
- Spotify founder Daniel Ek, who has run the streaming music giant for nearly two decades, will step down in 2026 and be replaced by a pair of co-CEOs. Ek announced on Tuesday that he will become executive chairman, with a focus on long-term strategy. Co-presidents Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström will be elevated to succeed him. Ek grew Spotify from modest roots in Stockholm in 2006 into a $150bn powerhouse that challenged the iTunes model of how consumers listened to music.
- Black Forest Labs, a German artificial intelligence startup that has partnerships with Meta and Adobe, is in talks to raise between $200m (€170m) and $300m (€256m) in funding, Bloomberg reports, citing anonymous sources. The startup is one of few European firms developing its own AI model. The funding would propel the startup’s valuation to $4bn (€3bn), marking a meteoric rise since its launch last year. Earlier this month, Meta also reportedly signed a $140m (€119m) deal to use Black Forest Labs’ AI image generator.
CXM news stories
Here’s the full news stories that CXM have reported on in the past week. Learn all about the latest news around the use of AI in dining, the importance of employee engagement surveys, and new AI agents from Sprinklr and more.
No More Brand Loyalty, Just Brand Battles
Consumer spending confidence is returning, but brand loyalty is fading fast. The Q4 Ecommerce Pulse Report from Salsify and the Digital Shelf Institute (DSI) shows just 39% of shoppers expect to spend less in 2026, a sharp drop from 69% last year. At the same time, loyalty has all but collapsed: 72% of consumers switched brands in the past year, proving that reviews, reputation, and AI-powered discovery tools now play a bigger role than repeat habits.
“Shoppers are less loyal, more selective, and increasingly guided by signals of trust,” explains Dom Scarlett, Research Director at Salsify. “Price can still prompt a switch, but it’s reviews, reputation and AI-driven recommendations that now close the sale. Brands cannot rely on repeat business — they need to win every purchase.”
The New Rules of the Digital Shelf
The report reveals how consumer behaviour is shifting:
- Loyalty Collapse: Millennials (80%) and Gen Z (76%) are the most likely to try new brands.
- Reviews > Price: 32% rank reviews as the deciding factor at checkout, compared to just 16% for price.
- AI Goes Mainstream: Nearly two-thirds of shoppers (64%) used AI tools for discovery, with Gen Z leading at 79%.
- Trust Outweighs Deals: While 55% switch brands for discounts, 87% say they’ll pay more for a trusted brand.
- Out-of-Stocks = Lost Sales: 58% buy elsewhere when their favourite product is unavailable.
While economic pressures linger, many shoppers are preparing to spend more in the year ahead. 30% expect to increase their spending, especially Millennials (41%) and Gen Z (37%). Baby Boomers remain the most cautious, with half planning to keep spending steadily. Still, overall pessimism is far lower than in 2025.
Shoppers are taking control of the marketplace with their feedback. 63% left a rating or review in the past year, and positive reviews outnumbered negative ones nearly two to one. This growing wave of consumer-generated content acts as the new “shelf space”, dictating which products rise and which fade into obscurity.
Every Product Page Is a Battlefield
In 2026, no brand can coast on loyalty alone. Nearly 44% of shoppers compare prices across three or more retailers before buying, meaning every product page must work harder to earn the sale. To win, brands must:
- Treat reviews as the new currency of commerce.
- Optimise for both humans and AI-driven discovery.
- Ensure consistency across every channel.
The battle for consumer attention has never been tougher, or more winnable for brands that prioritise trust, credibility, and discoverability.
